A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Thursday unanimously recommended approval of the first drug for multiple sclerosis (MS) that can be taken orally. Existing drugs for the disease have to be given intravenously or by injection. The new drug, targeted initially at relapsing-remitting MS, is called fingolimod and its manufacturer, Novartis, plans to use the brand name Gilenia. The agency is not required to follow the recommendations of its advisory panels, but it generally does.
"At last, we can treat a whole lot of MS people that we've not been able to treat before," Dr. Loren Rolak of the Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin and a spokesman for the National MS Society, told CNN. That would include people who are afraid of needles, those who are resistant to existing drugs or are tired of their side effects and those who dislike the needle sticks.
MS is a disease in which the body's own immune system attacks the protective layer of myelin around nerve fibers, producing short circuits. Symptoms include visual disturbances, difficulty walking, fatigue, and loss of coordination, sensation, and bowel and bladder control. About 85% of the 400,000 Americans with the disease have the relapsing-remitting form, in which attacks on the body are followed by periods of remission -- although each relapse typically leaves the body more damaged.
Read the rest of the story here: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2010/06/fda-advisory-panel...